Keen v. Continental Casualty Co.

175 Iowa 513
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedOctober 4, 1915
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 175 Iowa 513 (Keen v. Continental Casualty Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Keen v. Continental Casualty Co., 175 Iowa 513 (iowa 1915).

Opinion

Preston, J.

1. It is necessary that a further brief statement of the record be made. A further provision of the policy is:

[516]*5161. insurance : accident policy: general and tfon°onstruc" “Where accidental injury results in hernia . . . the amount payable shall be one fourth of the amount which otherwise would be payable under this policy, anything m this policy to ^16 contrary notwithstanding, and subject otherwise to all the conditions in this policy contained. ’ ’

In the application by deceased, he stated:

“I have not now nor have I had any infirmity or defect in mind or body. I am not now suffering from hernia nor any periodical, chronic, mental or physical disease.”

Defendant pleaded these provisions, and alleged that, at the time the application was made, the insured had hernia, and that, if the insured suffered any injury as alleged, such injury resulted in hernia, and by reason thereof the defendant is liable for only one fourth of the amount due. For reply, plaintiff denied that deceased was suffering from hernia or any other disease. The court instructed that, if the jury found from the evidence that deceased had hernia at the time of the application, they need proceed no further, but should return a verdict for defendant, and, as before stated, that in no event should plaintiff recover more than $1,817.15. The interrogatories submitted to the jury and the answers thereto follow:

“(1) Q. Was William W. Keen afflicted with the disease known as hernia when he made his application for insurance, on the 9th day of January, 1908 ? A. No.
“ (2) Q. Was the injury, if any, to William W. Keen a personal bodily injury, effected directly and independently of all other causes through external, violent and purely accidental means ? A. Yes.
“(3) Q. Was the injury and death of William W. Keen contributed to or caused by any disease or infirmity other than the accident? A. No.
“(4) Q. Was the deceased, William W. Keen, just [517]*517prior to the date of the alleged" injury, September 6, 1911, afflicted with the disease called hernia? A. No.
“(5) Q. Was the injury and death of William W. Keen solely the result of injuries sustained while lifting or attempting to lift a boat? A. Yes.”

We are of opinion that the evidence is undisputed that the injury resulted in hernia. We do not understand plaintiff to contend otherwise. The plaintiff’s propositions and argument are that prior provisions of the policy provide for the payment of $5,000 where the insured shall receive personal, bodily injury which is effected, directly and independently of all other causes, through external, violent and accidental means, etc., and that such conditions must be construed most strongly against the insurer and, taken together with other provisions, they must be held to apply to such disease or bodily or mental infirmity as in some manner contribute directly or indirectly to the death; that it is not enough to defeat recovery to show either disease or bodily or mental infirmity, citing Vernon v. Iowa State Traveling Men’s Assn., 158 Iowa 597; Binder, Admr., v. National Masonic Accident Assn., 127 Iowa 25; that death resulting from disease which follows as a consequence of a physical injury is an accidental death within the meaning of the policy, citing Delaney v. Modern Accident Club, 121 Iowa 528; also the fishbone ease, Jenkins v. Hawkeye Com. Men’s Assn., 147 Iowa 113; that, where a policy excepted liability from hernia, death from strangulated hernia caused by the external violence and followed by a surgical operation was covered by the policy, not being included within the terms of the exception, and the company is not relieved from responsibility where hernia is caused by external injury, citing eases; that, where hernia was excepted in the policy, and the insured fell and became afflicted with strangulated hernia, resulting in a surgical operation and death, the policy is to be construed that death from hernia caused solely and directly by external violence and a necessary surgical operation was not within the exception, citing [518]*518cases; that death resulting from a fall is covered by the policy, although the fall might have been due to a temporary disease, the fall and not the disease being the proximate cause of death, citing Meyer v. Fidelity & Casualty Co., 96 Iowa 378; that, where death from a rupture of a kidney produced by an accidental fall is the result of the accident, independent of other causes, the injury is within the provisions of the policy, although a cancerous condition of the kidney made the rupture possible, citing Fetter v. Fidelity & Casualty Co., 174 Mo. 256 (61 L. R. A. 459).

Counsel for plaintiff concede that, if the death may have resulted from either disease or accident, there is mo presumption as to the cause of death, but contend that the burden of proof is on the insurer to show that the cause of death was disease, and not accident, citing the Fetter case, supra, and other cases.

It is plaintiff’s contention that all questions of interpretation are eliminated by the special findings of fact of the .jury, which furnish no basis for the defendant’s contention, and show that the injury and death were the direct and immediate result of the injury, without the intervention of any preceding or subsequent disease. Some of these propositions are pertinent to the inquiry as to whether plaintiff is entitled to recover in any amount. But here we have a specific provision of the policy that, if an injury results in hernia, the recovery is to be but one fourth the amount which would otherwise be payable, notwithstanding other provisions of the policy. It is contended by defendant that the liability of the company under the express provisions of the policy is limited to one fourth of the amount otherwise due, and there can be no recovery in excess of that sum, and that provisions in policies of accident insurance stipulating for non-liability, or for a reduced liability in the event that the insured is injured under certain conditions or in certain designated ways, or in the event that -the accident results in certain designated bodily injuries, are valid, and have been universally sustained by the courts, citing [519]*519Flower v. Continental Casualty Co., 140 Iowa 510; Little v. Iowa S. T. M. Assn., 154 Iowa 440; Continental Casualty Co. v. Fleming (Ky.), 124 S. W. 331; Continental Casualty Co. v. Morris (Texas), 102 S. W. 773; Diddle v. Continental Casualty Co. (W. Va.), 63 S. E. 962. We are of opinion that the trial court did not err in limiting the recovery to one fourth.

2- cident^exist-0" orbodiiyfn-se dencef: evi" 2. Deceased - and his wife were at Bald Eagle Lake, Minnesota, at the time of the alleged accident. On the morning of September 6, 1911, he went to the lake, a short distance from the house, to go fishing. It had rained night before, and there was water in the boat which he was to use. Plaintiff’s claim is that there was water in the boat and that deceased attempted to turn it over to turn the water out, and slipped, and felt something break loose inside of his bowels. There was no one but deceased present at that time. Declarations of deceased claimed as part of the res gestae are shown as to the cause of the injury.

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Bluebook (online)
175 Iowa 513, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/keen-v-continental-casualty-co-iowa-1915.